Good afternoon, friends!
I’ve been taking advantage of the extra free time at home to do a little wedding planning! As you guys know, Matt and I will be getting married in October 2012 (here’s our engagement story if you missed it!). We met with the caterer (who comes with the venue we chose) last Friday and made some great headway on planning the menu — more details on that to come when we do a tasting! We’re also meeting with the on-site events coordinator next Friday to talk more details, so I’ve been looking through wedding magazines for ideas!
My dad has a stationary bike in the basement, so yesterday morning I set up shop on it for about 40 minutes, flipping through magazines and tearing out things I liked the look of.
I’m definitely not the type of person that has had my wedding planned since I was 12; I’d never even looked at a wedding magazine, website, or blog until after we got engaged, so I basically have no clue what to do beyond just what I’ve seen at friends’ weddings. It’s been helpful and fun to get some ideas!
Here are some things I liked the looks of.
We’re having an outdoor wedding with a tent, and I loved these Chinese lanterns in the photo below on the left. Matt had actually mentioned liking lanterns, too, so I’ll definitely show this to the planner! As for table settings (and flowers), I think we’re going to keep things simple — we’d rather spend money on having good food, a good band, and an open bar than on elaborate decorations.
We’re thinking of a dark blue color theme, and I liked the look of the middle dress in this picture below for bridesmaids, probably with silver shoes. Two of my bridesmaids are coming to visit me in NC in January so hopefully we can do a little dress shopping then — I’m thinking along the lines of Ann Taylor or J. Crew so the dresses will be less expensive and already in the right size! I don’t want anyone spending a fortune to be in my wedding.
This is random, but how cute are these pie pops?! I love pie. Way more than cake. But don’t worry, we’re still going to have a cake. 🙂
And isn’t this a cute guest book idea? It’s a picture that was turned into a puzzle, and guests can sign the back of it before you put it back together. Love it! I think we want to have a photo booth at the wedding though — so it would be fun to just have a blank album book for people to use to paste one of the photo prints they get from the machine with a little note. That way we’ll have pictures of all the guests (plus photo booths rule).
I loved this creative RSVP card idea, too — although my mom made the point that you’d want to make sure people responded in a clear way how many people they were RSVP-ing for, etc., so we probably won’t do this. But still love it!
Also love this idea for an all-in-one gift registry — everything in one place! So convenient.
I also ripped out a bunch of photos of wedding dresses I like, because I’m going wedding dress shopping on the 27th for the first time! Gah! I’m bringing my mom, grandmother, and MOH with me. The lady at the store where we made an appointment said to bring some photos of styles I liked. I found myself most drawn to lace, chiffon, and ruffles (though not all together, ha). In terms of style, I like a bunch of different styles — the sheath dresses are pretty (especially when lace is involved), but I definitely want to try on some ball gowns for fun, too. 🙂 I’m thinking I want something with straps, but sweetheart neckline is really cute, too… I guess I’ll just see what speaks to me!
Here are some of the ones I ripped out to bring with me.
I loved this dress — I really like dresses with little belts. So cute! I thought the skirt was fun, too — and I liked that the top was different. Very unique.
I especially liked the one on the right below — the lace is so pretty and I like the straps.
Again — loving the belt look and the skirt is so pretty — love the lace and how light/flowy it looks.
Thought this one below was gorgeous — again, love lace and belts!
I loved that this one below had a really light looking skirt — I don’t want anything too heavy because I will clearly be very busy dancing up a storm at the reception.
This one below had a pretty skirt, too — I liked how it was a bit bigger but not huge. This one might weigh a lot though?
Anyway — so fun! If you guys have any wedding dress shopping advice, please share! 🙂
